Freedom - Everyone should be able to play exactly the way they want... pvp or rp'ish or crafting or exploring or whatever. Dont make someone HAVE to kill monsters to compete in PvP. Players will ultimately create the best game while INSIDE the game, give them the freedom to do so.
Motivation - Everyone needs motivation to fight each other. Conflict and War is always the most exciting part of a PvP game but people still need reasons to do it. Stats Pages, Loot, Bragging rights, Trophies, and growing your own personal PvP skill are things that make people want to fight each other. There definitely needs to be an element to the game that gets the non-aggressive people out of their caves as well. Like getting the RP'ers away from questing and the crafters outa their safe towns for some PvP. If theres no one to fight because half the server doesnt want to fight... the game dies.
Finding Action - Now that you got people wanting to fight each other you need a way for them to find each other. Shadowbane was the WORST at this because you couldnt see enemies unless they were 10 feet in front of you(hell sometimes 10 feet behind you). You should be able to see other players at maximum distance even if its just a tiny pixil indicating movement. Half the battle in previous games was checking 12 different "hot spots" just to find action... it was a huge waste of time. Shadowbanes Mine fights were a good example of a kinda fix.
Realism - Games are getting more advanced and imo they are getting better because they are getting more real. WoW took a giant leap backward for the true PvP'ers. We want collision, we want bullet drop mechanics, weather, "pushing" other players, Flash bang spell effects like those in FPS games(savage 2 has a cool Mind Warp effect that blurs the screen). We want to feel like we are in the game and it is the most realistic but still fun experience out there. Darkfall is going to blow the doors off all games when it delivers on just this aspect alone. Hopefully future games take this and improve on it.
Guild Goals - Running around and killing for loot, fame, and stat pages is fun but their needs to be an overall objective for guilds to accomplish at the same time. Like getting 10,000 guild kills will allow you to build a better Guild House... or will give you 100 special tokens for PvP set weapons/armor. Or map specific objectives that guilds can constantly fight over. Their should be objectives for both the small elite type guild and the mega-zerg and they should both be able to claim bragging rights for accomplishments. For example, Its important here that the stat/kill web pages show not only the most kills but the most average kills per member etc.
Loot/Loss - If there is no fear or no penalty for dying it changes the way you PvP 100%. Its like playing laser tag vs paintball. Its gonna hurt so your not gonna charge out in the open and take one in the mouf. It should mean something to charge into an army and die for your guild... your giving up your loot, your stats, and hopefully a nice long run back. Getting right back into the action in 2 minutes defeats the whole purpose of death. This is the center of adrenaline in PvP in my opinion. The fear of losing of what you have and the excitment of taking someone elses ass at the same time. If theres no full loot theres no adrenaline in the game.
Thats would i could think of off the top of my head.
